POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (May 10, 2017) – The Vassar baseball team will be traveling to Rochester, NY to compete in the 2017 Liberty League Tournament. This will be the third time in program history that VC Baseball has made it to the postseason. The Brewers come in the fourth seed in the tournament, playing the number one seed, Rochester Institute of Technology, in the first round on Thursday, May 11 at 1:00 p.m. The double elimination tournament begins Thursday, May 11 and ends May 13.

TOURNAMENT WEBSITE

Game Details
Opponent: Rochester Institute of Technology (30-7, 21-1 Liberty League)
Links: (RIT Baseball Home Page) (Roster) (Schedule) (Statistics)
Facility: RIT Baseball Field
Date: May 11-14
Time: Thursday: 1:00 p.m.
Live Coverage: (Live Scoring) (Live Video)

Game Details
Opponent: Union College (20-13, 14-7 Liberty League)
Links: (Union Baseball Home Page) (Roster) (Schedule) (Statistics)
Facility: RIT Baseball Field
Date: May 11-14
Time: TBA
Live Coverage: (Live Scoring) (Live Video)

Game Details
Opponent: Clarkson University (16-16, 12-8 Liberty League)
Links: (Clarkson Baseball Home Page) (Roster) (Schedule) (Statistics)
Facility: RIT Baseball Field
Date: May 11-14
Time: TBA
Live Coverage: (Live Scoring) (Live Video)

Last Time Out: The Brewers have won six of their last seven games and will look to carry this winning mentally with them into the weekend. Vassar is coming off a pair of wins against St. Lawrence, bringing Vassar to 19 wins on the season to tie the most wins in program history. Vassar is now 19-17 on the season and 11-9 in Conference games.

A Look at the Brewers

• The Brewers come into the tournament after clinching the fourth seed post winning two out of the three games against Liberty League opponent St. Lawrence.
• Junior Bobby Kinne was named Performer of the Week for the Liberty League this past week. Kinne batted .545 and earned two triples and three runs scored. Across the three games, Kinne slugged .909. He boasts two home runs on the season.
• Infielder Evan Trausch earned Liberty League Rookie of the Week for the second time this season. Against the Saints, Trausch batted .500 in four starts and posted three doubles overall. Trausch leads the Brewers this season in both his batting average (.376) and his slugging percentage (.521).
• Senior Pitcher Adam Erkis leads Vassar in batters struck out with 36 total on the season. Erkis, Vassar's go-to pitcher, has thrown 50.2 innings with a 4.26 Earned run average. This past weekend, Erkis tied the most ever wins in program history with 15.
• Joe Conti is coming off a strong weekend against St. Lawrence. The sophomore did not allow a run over eight innings against the Saints in addition to striking out three.
• Posting two hits in two at-bats in game two was Junior Chris Lee, who helped VC earn the 1-0 win against the Saints.

A Look at the Tigers

• The host of the 2017 Liberty League tournament, the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers are going into the tournament as the No. 1 seed. They are looking to grab their first ever Liberty League title.
• RIT has won 23 of their last 24 games, bringing them to their most successful season in program history with 30 wins overall. Their only conference loss of the season came against the Engineers of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who will not be playing in the 2017 tournament.
• Currently, RIT is ranked No. 25 in the country by D3baseball.com National Rankings. This marks the first time that RIT has been ranked in the 65 year span that RIT has supported a baseball team.
• The Tigers are hitting .308 this season with seven of their players above .300. Offensively, RIT is ranked second in the Liberty League under Union College and are slashing .308/.457/.401, while the Brewers are slashing .281/.376/.385.
• Senior Will Gorman is leading the Liberty League in runs scored with 44, runs batted in with 36, home runs with 8, and walks with 28.
• Brett Kajganich and Daniel Zeglen both lead RIT in hitting, both boasting a .352 average.
• Defensively, RIT has earned a 2.38 ERA. Junior Pitcher Brian Reed leads the team with a 1.89 ERA across 52.3 innings.

A Look at the Dutchmen

• Union College comes into the tournament as the No.2 seed as as defending champions. They will play their first tournament game against Clarkson University on May 11th at 10:00 a.m.
• Currently, Union is 14-7 in the conference, with four of those losses against Vassar.
• The Dutchmen lead the Liberty League Offensively, slashing .319/.440/.399, topping the No. 1 seed RIT in these categories.
• Junior Jake Vesling leads the Dutchmen and the Liberty League with his .416 batting average and his .490 on base percentage.
• Senior Kent Curran leads the conference in slugging percentage with .723 and is second behind Vesling in the league with a .411 batting average.
• On the mound, Ryan Kuchar has been a strong force for Union this season, posting a 2.80 ERA in 45 innings total.

A Look at the Golden Knights

• The No.3 seed in the tournament are the Clarkson University Knights. They are coming off a double header against Union where they split the wins.
• Clarkson is fourth overall in the league when it comes to batting, slashing a .287/.362/.354. Clarkson has also earned the fourth place spot in the league when it comes to its ERA (2.82).
• Leading Clarkson at bat is Senior Dom Pirro with a .376 batting average, which is good for fifth in the league, just behind Vassar's Evan Trausch.
• Right behind Pirro on the leaderboards for Clarkson is Joe Fraser, a freshman infielder who is seventh in the league when it comes to his batting average (.365).
• Pitcher Ted Wilson has a perfect record (6-0) so far this season. Wilson is ninth in the conference in ERA with 2.94. Additionally, he is fourth in innings pitched (52) and third in overall wins (6).
• Clarkson has been a consistently strong team as this is the fourth straight season that the Knights have made it to the Liberty League tournament.

Up Next: Coming in the fourth seed, Vassar will look to carry out some upsets in order to qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time.